Trump tries to plug leaks with NDA plan for all federal government workers

In the business world, President Donald Trump has long been known for his use of NDAs: nondisclosure agreements. And he favors them in the federal government as well. According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration is planning a "government-wide nondisclosure agreement that would bar federal workers from sharing a wide array of 'confidential government information.'"

Scott Nover and Meryl Kornfield report that a draft notice on the government NDA was "posted to the Federal Register on Tuesday" by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

"The draft notice, which will be published Wednesday and stay open for a 30-day public comment period, uses an expansive definition of privileged information, beyond typical classified and unclassified designations," Nover and Kornfield explain in the Washington Post. "The draft blocks employees from sharing 'non-public, confidential, or proprietary information' or 'any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.' Agencies can decide whether to adopt the NDA, according to the draft."

The draft notice, according to the Post reporters, claims that "unauthorized disclosures" and high-profile leaks have found their way to major media outlets, including the Post and the New York Times.

One of them, the Trump Administration alleges, involved the U.S. military raid in Caracas, Venezuela that resulted in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (who is now being held in a federal detention center in New York City). The Trump Administration claims that a Venezuela leak "put the lives of members of the armed forces at risk, leading news organizations to delay 'publishing what they knew to avoid endangering U.S. troops,'" but the New York Times disputes that claim.

"The Trump administration has used nondisclosure agreements in recent efforts to keep a close hold on certain information," Nover and Kornfield observe. "The Pentagon imposed NDAs and random polygraph testing as part of a broader effort last year to deter and, critics claimed, root out leaks and those deemed insufficiently loyal. The Department of Veterans Affairs also required officials working on layoff plans last year to sign agreements, keeping much of its workforce in the dark about mass firing plans, which were later canceled."

The Post reporters add, "There are legal limitations to the use of NDAs in government. Under a federal law that protects whistleblowers, these agreements cannot limit a civil servant's ability to expose waste, fraud and abuse."

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